REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Africa Investment Forum – PAIF
E-mail : [email protected]
REQUESTS FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR DEAL ADVISORY CONSULTANTS FOR THE AFRICA INVESTMENT FORUM
- The African Development Bank (AfDB) hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: Deal Advisory Consultants for the Africa Investment Forum ;
- Established by the AfDB and seven founding partners in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) is Africa’s investment market place – a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform dedicated to advancing projects to bankable stages, raising capital, and accelerating the financial closure of deals. The Africa Investment Forum convenes investors interested in Africa, African investors, enterprises with concrete investment needs, and selected government leaders to work out ways to boost private sector investments in Africa. The AIF aims to reduce intermediation costs, improve the quality of project information and documentation, and increase active and productive engagements between African governments and the private sector as well as between investors and project sponsors. The AIF offers investors access to a structured platform offering bankable, de-risked projects within an enabling environment ;
- The services to be provided under the assignment include identifying deals for transaction advisory support, performing bankability assessments structuring and offering advisory services to address bankability gaps. The assignment entails collaborating with the AIF’s Global Investor Client management and Investment officers, AIF partners, Bank Sector and Regional complexes to advance deals from origination to financial close. The role requires the consultants to demonstrate strong experience and knowledge of Public, Private, Partnerships (PPPs) and Private Sector transactions, particularly project finance, and corporate finance, including fund structuring and management in several regions across Africa. The Consultants will report to the Senior Director, Africa Investment Forum ;
- The Africa Investment Forum invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications, experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services, as well as a proposed work program with timeline, their understanding of the assignment and the proposed way to approach the assignment (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, etc.) ;
- The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the African Development Bank’s “Rules and Procedure for the Use of Consultants” May 2008 Edition revised October 2015, which is available on the Bank’s website. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include it in the shortlist ;
- The work assignment, under this term of reference, will involve full-time consultancy services for a period of six (6) months and may be extended based on the performance of the retained Consultants, availability of budgetary resources and as may be determined by the Bank. The successful Consultants will be expected to start in December 2020 upon completion of the selection process and upon signature of the contract. The position will be based in Abidjan ;
- Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the email addresses below during the Bank’s working hours: 0800hrs to 1700hrs ;
- Expressions of interest with an updated Curriculum vitae (CV) must be received at the email addresses below no later than 25th November 2020 at 1700hrs Central African Time and specifically mentioning Deal Advisory Consultants for the Africa Investment Forum.
For the attention of :
Mrs. Onike Nicol-Houra
Africa Investment Forum
African Development Bank, 6 Avenue Joseph Anoma
01 BP 1387 Abidjan – COTE D’IVOIRE
E-mail : NICOL@ AFDB.ORG [email protected]
- Establishment of the Shortlist: A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established once the expressions of interest and updated CVs are received. The consultants on the shortlist will be invited to submit a proposal and comment on the Terms of Reference (attached as an annex). The proposals shall be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria1 :
a. General qualifications and adequacy for the assignment to be undertaken |
25% |
b. Similar experience in the area of expertise of the assignment |
40% |
c. Understanding of the Terms of Reference |
20% |
d. |
Experience with the Bank and/or multilateral donors |
10% |
e. |
Language Proficiency |
5% |
The weighted coefficients for these criteria may be adjusted to reflect the type of service required.
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DEAL ADVISORY CONSULTANTS FOR THE AFRICA INVESTMENT FORUM
- BACKGROUND :
1.1. African Development Bank Group :
Established in 1964, the African Development Bank Group (“the Bank” or “AfDB”) is the premier Pan-African development institution promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 Member States, including 54 from Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas (High 5s), all of which will accelerate the Bank’s delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; Light Up and Power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa. The Bank co-operates with a large network of international development partners and has two official languages: English and French.
1.2. Africa Investment Forum :
The vision of the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) is to become a leveraging platform that will tilt the balance of capital towards Africa’s critical sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the African Development Bank’s High 5s and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. This goal translates into three reinforcing objectives, which include: (a) Advancing projects to bankable stage, by more effective project preparation as well as advisory support that advances deals in the AIF pipeline; (b) Capital raising by partners, lenders and investors for increased co-financing for bankable projects; and, (c) Accelerating financial closure of deals through this coordinated approach.
Established by the AfDB and seven founding partners in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) is Africa’s investment market place, through which the AfDB, along with its partners originate deals, structure and enhance projects, attract co-investors, and facilitate investments to close Africa’s investment gaps. The AIF’s modus operandi spans four (5) pillars which include :
- The Platform : activities involving deal origination and structuring, as well as the management of a digital portal ;
- The Market Place : activities involving sponsorships, partnership onboarding, regional investment roundtables, investor facilitation and matchmaking, as well as serving a vibrant community of active AIF members ;
- The Market-Days : an annual 3-Day event convening investors and lenders, project sponsors, key government stakeholders, transaction facilitators and entrepreneurs around specific private (Boardrooms, Bilateral meetings) and public sessions (initiatives, pitching sessions, plenary sessions) ;
- The Deal Tracker : post-Boardroom activities involving the monitoring of AIF Boardroom deals and facilitating their progress towards deal closure ;
- Knowledge/Policy Environment : seeks to foster investment friendly regulation, a pro-investment climate to remove bottlenecks to deal closure, as well as disseminate knowledge products.
- PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY :
The purpose of the consultancy is to perform Transaction Advisory services in originating mandates, structuring and addressing deal bankability to market from origination to financial close. Creating broad stakeholders value, the Consultant will work within policy constraints to increase the number of bankable projects and facilitate resource mobilization on the AIF platform.
- SCOPE OF SERVICES :
The specific duties of the consultant will be as follows :
- Proactively identify deals for transaction advisory support/services, in collaboration with the Global Investor Client management and investment officers, AIF partners, project sponsors, governments, sector complexes, and regional offices ;
- Originate deal advisory mandates, and work to develop a strong pipeline of bankable deals to bring forward to market and coordinate capital raise at the AIF platform ;
- Perform due diligence and transaction advisory management, review of legal, commercial, and technical outputs, project structure design, and drafting of project contractual documentation ;
- Apply project finance valuation methods and tools, including development and/or supervision of financial models and development of financial and economic analysis. Understanding of Value for Money, and Public Sector Comparator valuation methods, and assessing Viability Gap funding ;
- Support governments and project sponsors in identifying the best and innovative value for money option with clearly defined role(s) for the public and the private sector, to bring deals to market ;
- Perform transaction structuring with strong creative innovation in developing novel transaction structures leveraging innovative financing and risk mitigation instruments and tools. Sound knowledge of blended finance and the use of guarantees and other financing structures to de-risk infrastructure investments ;
- Carry out Market sounding of potential deals to investors. Work closely with investment officers and Global Investor Client management officers to sound deals to investors via the AIF Investors blast and other mediums ;
- Develop a network of transaction advisory partners and devise a success fee revenue sharing formula ;
- Work closely with AIF management to develop a suite of tools and processes for transaction advisory services ;
- Demonstrate practical knowledge of Transaction Advisory support/services engagement process, including carrying out bankability assessment and identifying bankability gaps. Carry out the processing and execution of advisory mandates including negotiation of terms, with practical knowledge of the entire transaction advisory and deal development cycle up to commercial and financial close. Advise on/prepare bankable documents, PPP contracts and agreement to leverage private investment at AIF market days and investment stage ;
- Demonstrate strong experience and knowledge of Public, Private, Partnerships (PPPs) and Private Sector transactions, particularly project finance, and corporate finance, including fund structuring and management in several regions, particularly the African region ;
- Demonstrate sound knowledge and practical experience of the full spectrum of at least 4 sectors including market trends, challenges, and opportunities. Applicable knowledge of the financial, technical, commercial, risks, environment, legal and regulatory implications and impediments for private sector investments in PPP transactions ;
- Demonstrate practical experience of leading PPP procurement process, bid tendering process (Solicited and unsolicited bids), and evaluation. Experience in working with Governments, PPP Units, and project sponsors, etc.to develop deals through PPP procurement process ;
- Provide support to other duties as assigned by the Senior Director.
- QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE :
- Hold at least a Master’s Degree in Development Finance, Business Administration, Finance, Public Administration or related discipline ;
- Have a minimum of fifteen (15) years professional experience in PPP transaction advisory or Investment, M&A, privatization advisory on buy and/or sell side, and/or project finance – all with focus on the infrastructure sector, with specific experience in Africa ;
- 5-7years of experience of sell-side PPP advisory is considered a plus ;
- Strong experience across the infrastructure asset class (Power – renewables, non-renewables; Transport – road, rail, airport and Aviation, maritime port, industries, Housing, ICT, Water & Sanitation – water supply , waste management etc.) with sound knowledge of their respective market and transaction structures, sector trends, legal and regulatory requirements and stakeholders value, and with proven track record of infrastructure/PPP transactions ;
- Strong analytical and financial modelling and transactional structuring skills ;
- Sound business judgment in identifying business opportunities as well as strong business development and client relationship skills ;
- Ability to operate in large, culturally diverse and geographically dispersed teams ;
- Working experience in multinational organization in Africa and/or specialized experience in similar organization/s would be considered an advantage ;
- Having private sector experience will be an added advantage. Knowledge of economic developments and market trends in Africa ;
- Willingness to travel extensively and geographic flexibility ;
- Excellent presentation skills; Ability to communicate orally and in writing effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language ;
- Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint).
- DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT :
The work assignment, under this term of reference, will involve full-time consultancy services for a period of six (6) months and may be extended based on the performance of the retained Consultant, availability of budgetary resources and as may be determined by the Bank. The successful Consultant will be expected to start in 15 December 2020 upon completion of the selection process and signature of the contract.
- RENUMERATION :
The consultant shall be paid a total monthly lump sum, comprising fee, subsistence or other incidentals, for the duration of the assignment, which is commensurate with the number of years of work experience. The AIF will cover travel and field mission costs (if any) as per African Development Bank rules in this regard.
Note : Consultants must register at http://dacon.afdb.org/dacon before submitting their CV to be considered for the shortlist.